Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Opening remarks at the
9th World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-25)
[As prepared for delivery]
His Excellency Rashad Nabiyev, Minister of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan,
Dr Cosmas Zavazava, Director of the ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau,
Fellow Elected Officials,
Ministers,
Ambassadors,
colleagues, and friends,
I am honored to welcome you to the World Telecommunication Development Conference.
The WTDC has always had a special place in my heart.
One of my very first projects upon arriving at ITU was supporting preparations for the very 1st WTDC.
That WTDC declared telecommunications an essential component of political, economic, social and cultural development.
Now in its 9th edition, this is my first WTDC as Secretary-General and the first to be held here in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) region.
If it feels like home for you too, it is thanks to our incredible hosts, who have gone above and beyond to create a welcoming, productive environment. One that will enable us to deliver the outcomes everyone in this room has been working so hard towards for the past three years.
Let me add how great it is to be back in Baku: The City of Winds.
The winds of digital change have certainly been blowing, across the region and around the world, since we last met in Kigali in 2022.
Back then, we were emerging from a global pandemic. ChatGPT had not yet become household name.
Three years on, geopolitical headwinds have grown stronger.
And so must be our resolve in terms of AI readiness; in terms of resilient digital infrastructure — including submarine cables — and in terms of space sustainability and of ensuring early warning systems reach everyone, everywhere.
Digital continues to top every agenda, including at the United Nations.
From Belém, where the 3rd Green Digital Action track is highlighting sustainable digital transformation at COP30, to Doha, where the Declaration adopted by the 2nd World Summit for Social Development mentions digital no less than 24 times, to Sevilla, where the 4th Financing for Development Conference committed to unlocking finance for developing countries, including for digital infrastructure, to last year's Summit of the Future in New York, where through the Global Digital Compact countries recommitted to bridging the digital divide, to achieving universal connectivity, and to ensuring all people can gain the digital skills increasingly needed to thrive in the age of artificial intelligence ꟷ a technology that is rapidly transforming how we learn, communicate, and earn a living.
That is, of course, if we are connected to the Internet in the first place.
Since the last WTDC, hundreds of millions more people have been brought online — in no small part thanks to your efforts in implementing the Kigali Action Plan.
The fact that more people have access to the Internet than ever before in history is an amazing achievement; one we can all be proud of.
But, I ask BUT, is that connectivity meaningful, affordable, inclusive, and safe enough?
Is the digital transformation we read about in the headlines every day sustainable for all people and our planet?
The answer is: not yet.
Because Billions of people still do not use the Internet at all.
Nearly 80 per cent of them live in low-income countries.
The digital divide for women and girls is not closing quickly enough, with 250 million fewer women than men using the Internet worldwide; a gap that remains widest in the least developed countries.
4G mobile service reaches just over half of the population in low-income countries, with decades-old 3G (and in some cases 2G) remaining the only way for many communities to connect ꟷ especially in least developed countries (LDCs), small island developing states (SIDS), and landlocked developing countries (LLDCs).
I have just returned from an unforgettable mission to one of the LLDCs that has received more than 1 million refugees from a neighboring country.
I had the opportunity to meet with this community of forcibly displaced people and their hosts.
And that mission reaffirmed a simple truth: That digital inclusion is more than a development priority. It is a matter of dignity; It is a digital lifeline.
During our visit to a Connectivity Center located in this refugee settlement, the first of its kind in the region, I saw at least three people using a single computer, with an additional few people standing behind. One learning the basics of making a spreadsheet, another taking a programming course at a top-tier university, another was learning English, another drawing the future he envisioned for himself and his family.
Every young person I met there spoke powerfully, and always with a smile, on how connectivity gives them access to family, to friends, to services, education, and job opportunities. And most importantly – hope.
Hope to rebuild in the wake of unimaginable tragedy and loss.
As the Chair of the last WTDC, Minister Paula Ingabire of Rwanda, so well stated: “Connectivity is and will continue to be a cornerstone for the individual and the collective resilience of humanity."
Because connectivity can mean a child's chance to receive an education; a new business using mobile money to provide essential services; an expectant mother gaining access to critical health information; a young person's chance to build the skills that boost their chances of earning a livelihood.
Here in Baku, our task is to help meet those needs and build that resilience through our policy decisions and resolutions.
We are here at WTDC to make digital opportunities meaningful and accessible to all people. We are here to create the conditions that leave no one behind in a world being reshaped by technology, faster than ever.
We are here to breathe new life into global digital development work that can only be done by all of us, together.
Nowhere is the power of collective progress better captured than by the Partner2Connect Digital Coalition, which has mobilized over 1,000 pledges valued at more than 80 billion USD for meaningful connectivity and sustainable digital transformation globally.
The time has come to ensure the implementation of these commitments.
It's time to make good on our Kigali Declaration and its promise to “spare no effort to expand and use digital infrastructure and services to build truly sustainable digital economies."
Let's continue making those who came before us proud.
Like Sir Donald Maitland who back in the early 80s led the Independent Commission for Worldwide Telecommunications Development which first established the “The Missing Link" between the availability of telecommunication infrastructure and a country's economic growth.
The Report of the Maitland Commission called on the world to close the “intolerable" gap in telephone access between developed and developing countries by putting fixed telephone lines within walking distance of all households by the year 2000.
That very report laid the decisive groundwork for the BDT (ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau)'s creation and defined its foundational mission.
I think Sir Maitland would be amazed and proud to see how far we have come in the decades since the BDT was created.
Because, ladies and gentlemen, when we pool our resources towards the shared goal of “universal, meaningful connectivity and sustainable digital transformation" for all, when we are united to deliver as One ITU and One UN family, there is nothing we can't do.
Here in the City of Winds, strengthened by partnerships within and across industries, countries and regions — let's continue to move mountains.
May our digital development ambitions and investments rise to match each new wave of tech innovation.
Together, let us continue creating a more inclusive, affordable, sustainable digital future for all people, everywhere.
